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Zinto restores dignity among differently-abled people for Mandela Day

The World Health Organisation estimates that approximately 81 million people in Africa are affected by some form of disability. Fighting for disability rights is a huge task but some people are taking it upon themselves to make a positive change.

In Honour of Mandela Day, held on 18 July 2016, the Zinto Marketing Group (Zinto) coordinated an event for the Sithandiwe Disabled Care Centre (SDCC) in Lombardy East, a community driven project, which mainly focuses on mentally and physically challenged individuals.

Zinto highlighted the important role that South Africans have to play in ensuring the dignity of people with disabilities and encouraged the community to avoid exclusion and isolation of disabled persons within society.

It aimed to create much-needed awareness of the positive contribution of the SDCC and showed gratitude to caretakers at the Centre for selflessly serving the lesser-abled community. The registered non-profit organisation uses arts initiatives to address and overcome the social issues that disabled people encounter in their lives and develop minds, revive the spirit of learning and sharing in the community, regardless of disability or challenge.

Zinto’s team of performers convened at the Centre where a flash mob performed for the differently-abled individuals as well as the servicemen and women who work there, and served a lunch to show their appreciation and support. The live entertainment included brand mascot, ‘Ken the Dog’, a jumping castle for children from the community to play on and other exciting fun and games.

CEO and founder of Zinto Michelle Combrinck said, “Differently-abled people are not looking for sympathy, what they want is a community that understands them. We recognise that people with physical and mental disabilities face many challenges beyond just economic inclusion and our hope is to build a groundswell of invaluable support and encourage communities to get involved to help care for those in need.”